World View & Market Commentary. Forest first; Trees second. Focused on Real & Knowable facts that filter through the "experts" fluff and media hyperbole. Where we've been, what the future may hold and developing a better way forward.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For the first time, more than 34 million Americans received food stamps, which help poor people buy groceries, government figures said on Thursday, a sign of the longest and one of the deepest recessions since the Great Depression.

Enrollment surged by 2 percent to reach a record 34.4 million people, or one in nine Americans, in May, the latest month for which figures are available.

It was the sixth month in a row that enrollment set a record. Every state recorded a gain in participation from April. Florida had the largest increase at 4.2 percent.

Food stamp enrollment is highest during times of economic stress. The U.S. unemployment rate of 9.5 percent is the highest in 26 years.

Average benefit was $133.65 in May per person. The economic stimulus package enacted earlier this year included a temporary increase in food stamp benefits of $80 a month for a family of four.

Food stamp enrollment

Month Total

May 34.409 million

April 33.758 million

March 33.157 million

February 32.556 million

January 32.205 million

December 2008 31.784 million

November 2008 31.097 million

October 2008 31.050 million

September 2008 31.586 million

Notice the relentless climb in the numbers? Guess what… those numbers are not “seasonally adjusted.” There is no “birth/death” model used. It simply is what it is and it is shocking – 11.24% of the entire population.

Please compare and contrast that reality with the bonuses on Wall Street or with the money printing games being played by the Fed, Treasury, and central banks.

In Zimbabwe, they printed easy money too and the people starve as the cost of a loaf of bread becomes unaffordable. They have no food stamps in Zimbabwe, but for a while they had the best performing stock market in the world. For a while.